For the glory of Panau! Just Cause movie moves forward

Producer of Hitman assigned to helm Just Cause movie adaptation

Let the wild casting speculation begin! This week,the movie rag Varietyrevealed that film rights for the Just Cause franchise have been optioned to L+E Pictures, with producer Adrian Askarieh set to develop the script with Hollywood scribe Michael Ross.

Based on Avalanche's popular sandbox adventure series, the upcoming movie will likely crib its materials from last year's Just Cause 2, which saw Rico Rodriguez (aka the Scorpion) single-handedly liberate the Island of Panau with his mad black ops skillz, trusty grappling hook and witty one-liners.

Above: Real men fight helicopters one-on-one, on the chopper’s own turf

L+E Pictures, headed by Eric Eisner (son of Michael Eisner, no less), is reported to be shopping the film to independent financiers before hitting up the major studios.

For the film nerds keeping track: the producer of Hitman is working with the guy who penned Turistas to make an independently financed video game movie adaptation for the studio that brought us Hamlet 2. All they need to do now is cast Mario Lopez as Rico and we might have the next Avatar on our hands.